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2.
Microsoft Dynamics Case Study
Challenge
Greg Wilkinson and Tom McHale of Microsoft Dynamics knew that with their limited budgets
and historically average direct mail response rates, there was little hope they would reach their
marketing averages. “You can quote us. Response stunk,” says Wilkinson, Industry Marketing
Manager for Manufacturing. “Our average response rates were mediocre at best, topping out
at 1 – 1.5%. And our internal release rate (leads released to the sales channel) was a paltry
8 – 9%.”
McHale agrees. “We knew it could be done better, but weren’t sure how,” says the Industry
Marketing Manager for the Distribution industry.
That’s how Liz Taylor, President of Liz Taylor Marketing, LLC, came into the picture. Taylor
had worked with Microsoft Dynamics before, and came highly recommended. She initially
developed a direct mail program using Microsoft Dynamics’ response and fulﬁllment
“We saw the potential of tying
outsourcing vendor, but at the last minute, the company backed out of the campaign due to
together the direct mail piece with
capacity issues. “We had to come up with a solution, fast,” says Taylor, “so I called on The
the telemarketing because we had Lead Dogs. We’ve teamed up before on other projects, plus I knew they had worked with other
done direct mail before but never departments within Microsoft Dynamics.”
with any trained telemarketing
follow-up.” Based on their experiences working together, Taylor, a direct mail specialist, and The Lead
Tom McHale Dogs, a company specializing in business-to-business telemarketing, developed customized
Industry Marketing Manager for integrated direct marketing programs for each industry (Manufacturing and Distribution), which
they pitched to Wilkinson and McHale.
Distribution
Microsoft Dynamics
The program itself was pretty simple. Targeted recipients received a direct mail letter with a
priority code they used to get the high-value offer. Once the lead came in, a Lead Dogs rep
followed up with a phone call to qualify them based on Microsoft Dynamics’ scoring system.
“The beauty of the program is it can be used to target speciﬁc industry segments with
specialized messaging, lists, offers and follow-up, depending on the product line,” explains
Taylor. So, although each campaign was run independently, both shared the same
components: a mix of external lists targeting the speciﬁc markets, a one-page direct mail letter,
a high-value offer, Web response forms, and lead follow-up via telemarketing.
“We weren’t sure what to expect,” says McHale. “We viewed the program as experimental.
We saw the potential of tying together the direct mail piece with the telemarketing because we
had done direct mail before but never with any trained telemarketing follow-up. Once we saw
the project quote, we realized the entire program wasn’t going to cost much more than our
previous programs.”
www.leaddogs.com

3.
Microsoft Dynamics Case Study
The First Step: The Letter
Taylor wrote the control and test copy for the letters, all of which followed a similar format:
tell the prospect what the offer is, describe the beneﬁts of the offer, then give four ways to
respond. Recipients could reply by faxing, mailing the reply in a postage-paid envelope, calling
an 800 number or going online. Taylor used a plain #10 window envelope without a teaser,
personalized laser letters, and ﬁrst-class postage. “The strategy,” she explains, “is to make
the piece look like real business mail. Bulk rate postage, labels and teasers all say, ‘Throw me
away.’”
Working with Wilkinson and McHale, Taylor chose a mix of database and response lists
based on SIC (Standard Industry Codes) and other criteria targeting the manufacturing and
distribution industries. Demographics for both programs focused on manufacturers and
distributors in the “mid-market,” roughly deﬁned as ranging in revenue from $5 million to $500
million. All “C-level” contacts were targeted, including CEO, CFO, CIO principal and other
“The Lead Dog’s response site
related executives.
is very fast. During high volume
campaigns a company’s website The initial test mailings were each about 30,000 pieces. Despite tough economic timing,
can get overloaded and cause slow response was high enough to encourage more mailings.
response times. With The Lead
Dogs, once prospects submitted Personalized Web Response Forms
the priority codes, they were able to Working with The Lead Dogs, the team developed personalized Web response forms.
download the offers in seconds.” Generally, when prospects respond online, they often have to ﬁll in a lot of information on the
lead capture form. The Lead Dogs, using customized technology, were able to offer prospects
Liz Taylor
pre-ﬁlled forms based on the recipient’s priority code.
President
Liz Taylor Marketing
Here’s how it worked: prospects went to a speciﬁc URL and then entered the priority code
listed on the letter. After hitting the “submit” button, the prospect then viewed a form already
pre-ﬁlled with his/her name, company name, title, and address. He or she then had to answer
a few qualifying questions to download the offer. Manufacturing recipients could receive a
Manufacturing Software Evaluation and Planning Guide; Distribution recipients an Inventory
White Paper written by a distribution industry expert.
“The Lead Dogs have done a really good job with this technology,” reports Taylor. “It saves
prospects’ time, it’s more personalized, and it positively reinforces a company’s image and
brand. And, from a technical standpoint, The Lead Dog’s response site is very fast. During
high volume campaigns a company’s website can get overloaded and cause slow response
times. With The Lead Dogs, once prospects submitted the priority codes, they were able to
download the offers in seconds.”
Approximately 30% of the respondents chose to respond via the Web.
www.leaddogs.com

4.
Microsoft Dynamics Case Study
Telemarketing Follow-up Pays Off
What really made the campaigns pay off, however, was the telemarketing follow-up. “We had
done telemarketing in the past using internal resources,” says Wilkinson, “but had not used
speciﬁc, industry trained telemarketers.” “It was the quality of The Lead Dogs telemarketing
and their dedication to learning the unique pains of the distribution customer,” adds McHale,
“that signiﬁcantly increased the quality and the quantity of our released lead rate.”
Based in Austin, Texas, The Lead Dogs specializes in producing high-quality sales leads for
business-to-business companies. They do this by training their call reps to talk “peer-to-peer”
with CEOs, CIOs, IT managers and the like. Mike Wallen, CEO, explains The Lead Dogs
philosophy: “We expect our clients to become partners with us. The more information they
give our call reps, the more successful we are.” To that end, Wilkinson and McHale spent
scheduled web sessions to go over their respective industries, competitors, language, trends
and pain points with their Lead Dogs call teams.
“It was the quality of The Lead
Dogs telemarketing and their
Once a prospect responded to the letter, The Lead Dogs then followed up with a phone call
dedication to learning the unique in order to qualify the lead based on scoring criteria developed by the Microsoft Dynamics
pains of the distribution customer sales team. Leads that met a certain score were immediately released to the sales channel;
that signiﬁcantly increased the those that fell below were put into the “nurturing” category and were then sent a monthly
quality and the quantity of our e-newsletter as a way of keeping Microsoft Dynamics top of mind.
released lead rate.”
Tom McHale “The Lead Dogs did a great job of talking intelligently to our prospects,” reports Wilkinson.
“They could deﬁne prospects’ pain and then articulate this to the sales force.”
Industry Marketing Manager for
Distribution
Consistent lead scoring resulted in better quality leads going to the sales channel. It also
Microsoft Dynamics
served to validate the high initial response rate, as the percentage of qualiﬁed leads was as
high as or higher than other Microsoft Dynamics campaigns.
Online Reporting Shows Surprising Result
Another added beneﬁt was the ability to view results in real time via The Lead Dogs’ online
reporting system. According to Taylor, the ability to view both response and qualiﬁcation rates
by list and package gave her a powerful tool she could use to look below the surface of the
campaigns. This way, she and the Microsoft Dynamics team could identify lists and strategies
that performed stronger on qualiﬁcation levels, even when the “up-front” response rates were
lower than other segments.
“Although compiled lists were much lower on their initial response rates, we were interested
to see these lists gave us better qualiﬁed leads,” says Taylor. “This knowledge is so important,
because without it, you might actually drop a list that is really giving you more in terms of real
sales action. The Lead Dogs also gave us anecdotal information, another important beneﬁt in
this campaign. With big-ticket technology, the sales cycle is so long that we almost never get
the direct ‘back-end’ feedback that tells us what our response rates really mean in terms of
sales. With the Lead Dogs’ qualiﬁcation and sophisticated reporting, we got highly meaningful
qualitative data on campaign performance – and we got it fast enough to recommend
strategies for upcoming mailings.”
www.leaddogs.com